1969 Camaro
COPO ZL1 and L72 big blocks, all-new sheet metal and a second Indy pace car.
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1969 COPO 9560 ZL1
69 built
1969 COPO 9561 (L72 427)
997 cars (per CRG)
1969 Vehicle Information Kit
GM Heritage factory documents
1969 Z10 “pace car coupe”
~450–500 (estimate)
First Generation (1967–1969)
"A small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs."
The 1969 Yenko COPO prototype
One car
NHRA drag racing and COPO
1969–present
Buy, inspect & identify
Did you know
Unicorn options that turned out to be real
Community & lore
Indianapolis 500 pace cars
1967–2016
The COPO dealer that never stopped
Berger Chevrolet ordered about fifty COPO 427s in 1969, and it is still building performance Camaros a century after the family business began in 1925.
2012 Camaro
The ZL1 and COPO names come back in the same year.
Trans-Am: Penske's Camaros against Bud Moore's Mustangs
Where the stories cross
Barn finds that came with actual documentation
Community & lore
Fifth Generation (2010–2015)
The comeback, with a movie star's head start.
1987 Camaro
After an 18-year absence, the drop-top comes back as an ASC-built option, badged for the Camaro's 20th anniversary.
1997 Camaro
Arctic White and Hugger Orange for the 30th, and 106 LT4 cars from SLP.
Dick Guldstrand and Dana Chevrolet: one dealership, two famous cars
Where the stories cross
The modern COPO Camaro (revived for 2012)
2012 run: 69 cars; 2022 quota statements conflict
Roger Penske
Team owner of the championship Trans-Am Camaros
1992 Camaro
A Heritage Edition, the biggest 1LE year, and the last Camaro from Van Nuys.
Cowl tag decoder
Did you know
Larry Shinoda
Designer: Corvette and Boss 302
Don Yenko
Racer and dealer behind the Yenko Super Camaro
Mark Donohue
Driver of the Penske Trans-Am Camaros
Berger Chevrolet and the GMMG cars
Dealer-built continuation specials, produced in small documented batches
The dealer-tuners
Dana, Nickey, Baldwin-Motion, Berger, Yenko
VIN decoder
Did you know
Don Yenko: already named on the Corvette site
Where the stories cross
Engine and drivetrain decoder
Did you know
GM factory documents
Did you know
Identify a Camaro
Did you know
2010 Camaro
On sale in April 2009: a retro concept made real, with a movie-star head start.
Dana Chevrolet 427
~50 built, ~6 documented survivors
1967 Camaro
GM's answer to the Mustang arrives with the RS, the SS, a quiet Z/28 and the first Indy pace car.
1970 Camaro
An all-new body, four to five months late, and the start of a twelve-year run.
1971 Camaro
V8 compression falls as Chevrolet prepares its engines for unleaded fuel.
1982 Camaro
Motor Trend's Car of the Year, an Indy pace car, and a 90-hp four-cylinder in the same showroom.
1994 Camaro
The first fourth-generation convertible, now an uncommon car.
2011 Camaro
A folding roof comes back to the Camaro for the first time since 2002.
2014 Camaro
A naturally aspirated 505 hp LS7 track car that out-laps the more powerful ZL1.
2015 Camaro
A Commemorative Edition sends off the fifth generation.
2017 Camaro
The 650 hp supercharged ZL1 lands with a ten-speed automatic, fifty years after the first Camaro.
A shared engine: the LT-1 350
Where the stories cross
A story that looks fabricated, and how to tell
Community & lore
Baldwin-Motion Phase III
Single digits to low double digits
Bunkie Knudsen: in both companies' origin stories
Where the stories cross
Corvette and Camaro were never really separate
The same people, and the same engines, moved between them for sixty years.
Dick Harrell
Drag racer and engine builder, “Mr. Chevrolet”
Fourth Generation (1993–2002)
LT1, then LS1: Corvette power to the end of the F-body.
Fred Gibb
Dealer behind the COPO 9560 ZL1 order
John Z. DeLorean
Pontiac chief engineer, then general manager
Modern licensed “Yenko/SC” continuation cars
Modern licensed conversions, not vintage cars
Mr. Chevrolet
When GM quit racing, one man became the brand's unofficial presence, and built the cars the dealers put their names on.
Paper records guide
Did you know
Pete Estes
Chevrolet general manager at launch
Roger Penske: Corvette first, then Camaro
Where the stories cross
Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen
GM executive who left for Ford
Spy shots and prototype sightings
Community & lore
The 1967 Z/28
602 built for 1967
The 1968 Z/28 convertible
One of one
The dealer who out-engineered Chevrolet
A small-town Pennsylvania Chevy dealer talked the factory into building his cars for him, and a prototype from that deal just became the most expensive Camaro ever sold.
The designers who disowned it
Two GM styling vice-presidents later called the Camaro a compromise. One of them said he couldn't remember what it looked like.
The racing rules behind Cheetah and Z/28
A builder’s later recollection, period racing categories and the Camaro’s separate Trans-Am program.
The SLP-built SS, and the 106 LT4 cars
106 LT4-powered 1997 30th Anniversary SS cars (100 US, 6 Canada)
The Z/28 convertible that wasn't supposed to exist
Chevrolet never offered a Z/28 convertible in 1968. It built one anyway, for the man it needed to convince.
Third Generation (1982–1992)
The IROC-Z decade, from the Iron Duke to the 1LE.